Seventeen Broward County Sheriff's Office employees charged with defrauding Covid financial relief programs collectively received half a million dollars, federal prosecutors said.
The employees were each indicted separately on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. They were suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, Sheriff Gregory Tony said, calling it a standard procedure.
Further disciplinary action is expected.
"I’m not going to sugarcoat or dance around this, at the end of the day they will be gone," Tony said Thursday at a joint news conference with U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida.
"If they’re being criminally charged, there’s no place for them in this organization," the sheriff continued. "How can we have anyone out here wearing a badge that is stealing from the American people?"
The employees are accused of providing fraudulent information in order to obtain loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan, or EIDL, program, Lapointe's office said in a news release. The loans were given to business owners struggling during the pandemic.
Lapointe's office said together they collected $495,171 in assistance and used the money to "unjustly enrich themselves."
"The U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to uncover the fraud schemes and hold anyone involved accountable — regardless of an individual’s role in the community," Lapointe said in a statement. "No matter the amount, we will not allow limited federal tax dollars, which were intended to provide a lifeline to small businesses as they struggled to stay afloat during the economically devastating pandemic lockdown, to be swindled by those who were employed in a position of trust and cast aside their duty to uphold and abide by the law."
The scheme was uncovered after the sheriff's office's Public Corruption Unit received a tip from an employee that several workers may have committed PPP loan fraud, Tony said. He then instructed the unit to investigate the agency's roughly 5,500 employees, he said at the news conference.
The accused workers include eight from the Department of Law Enforcement, including one sergeant, eight detention deputies and one sergeant from the Department of Detention, Sheriff Tony said, according to the sheriff.
"For five years, I’ve maintained an organization committed to transparency and accountability," he said in a statement. "I will continue to expect integrity and commitment to excellence from every BSO employee."
The Union of Police Associations (I.U.P.A.) Local 6020 said it is aware of the investigation.
